I learned to hyper-caffeinate myself when I need to slow down and concentrate. I took Adderal for a little while, but stopped that shiat after I found myself doing lesson plans for 3-4 hours at a time, and not even realizing how much time had passed.

I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

AverageAmericanGuy:I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This person knows what's up.

/former overmedicated child//occasional tutor of kids who really do need the pills

FishyFred:AverageAmericanGuy: I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This person knows what's up.

/former overmedicated child//occasional tutor of kids who really do need the pills

The biggest problem is if your child requires any extra help in school they must have a medical diagnosis

FishyFred:AverageAmericanGuy: I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This person knows what's up.

/former overmedicated child//occasional tutor of kids who really do need the pills

Whether a person actually has extreme behavioral issues or a person simply wants to improve behavioral traits, the means (ie the drugs) should be available to them without requirement. But due to our drug hysteria in America we must make people justify the use with medical and government agencies. Therefor ADHD diagnosis was created to facilitate the distribution. Without ADHD drugs like Adderall would never make it out of laboratories.

AverageAmericanGuy:I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This, of course, is the rub. Where do you draw the line on what is, fundamentally, a spectrum of behaviors with no available lab tests to diagnose a disease?

so drugs are being used to treat symptoms, rather than tests being done to determine if there is some sort of underlying condition and then treating that condition?

COLOR ME SHOCKEDEspecially given the terrible health care in the US.

CSBI had undiagnosed hashimoto's (hypothyroidism) for probably 10 years.ooo depression? lets put you on medsooo sleep problems? lets put you on medsooo weight gain? well you are just lazyooo hypertension? lets put you on medsooo sleep apnea? lets put you on a machine or something

Even after being put on hormone replacement, the doctor was under dosing me, because they are TERRIFIED of going over. LOL

for anyone interested in the subject, check out a Louis Theroux doco called America's Medicated Kids. here's a promo. and another one. it used to be up on YouTube in full but now i can only find part 4/4. i'm sure if you hunt for it you could find it. well worth a watch.

i definitely think ADHD is a thing, but i doubt it's anywhere near as rampant and widespread as it seems to have become in recent years. i think there are a lot of otherwise healthy kids out there having labels slapped on them and pills shoved down their throats as an alternative to responsible parenting.

it's gotta be easier and less guilt-inducing to say your kid has a disorder than to take responsibility for the impact of your own shiatty parenting on their behaviour.

I definitely have an attention daydreaming disorder. Why did they put the H in ADD? *snaps fingers in my own face* dammit you snappy hands, I was staring through the computer monitor thinking about something, might have been important. Anyway, yeah, maybe I just get bored too easily. I wish I could actually see the galaxy when I'm off in space.

Talk about a misleading and stupid headline. The doctor ACTUALLY said something like, "ADHD doesn't exist; it's being used as a catch-all and the reality is much more complicated." Basically, lamenting how absolutely terrible the options for mental health care are right now, thanks to the farking bluehairs that don't believe in any psychiatric conditions besides let's-throw-them-in-an-asylum-to-die-or-be-experimented-on-crazy.

ADD and DHD definitely exist. I've seen it. ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) also exists. But psychiatrists are over prescribing pills, and it is leading to a horrifyingly over-medicated society. There are pills to make you pay attention, make you pee, make you not pee, make you crap, make you crap less water, make you sleep, make you stop thinking about the disembodied voices, make you happy, make you sad. And somewhere there's a pill to make you do all that at once.

But we're just too happy to accept a medical explanation for why the little farker can't sit still than understand that maybe he's just a F*CKING kid.

AverageAmericanGuy:I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Out of all the kids I've met who have had diagnoses of ADD or ADHD only one of them actually acted like they had something wrong with them and it was farking obvious. This kid was bouncing off the walls from sun up to sunset. Just nonstop. She would have been better had her parents actually gave her the meds instead of snorting them. The rest? Nope they don't act like she did. Just bratty kids with parents too high to give a fark. One of them was actually re-diagnosed as having Oppositional Defiance Disorder,basically the kiddy version of Anti Social personality disorder. Her mom took her to a different doctor cause she didn't like that diagnosis,IE she wanted those pills they'd give the kid if they said she had adhd. I mean it wasn't like a majority of these kids were actually getting the meds they were prescribed but still.

Well, it does seem that every attention deficient kid can find endless amounts for something engaging like a videogame, which must be hyperactivity.

I was a horrible student who never did his homework and aced tests. It took until college to find homework interesting enough to do. I've played Half-Life games straight through. I don't touch WoW or other things like that because I know I'd lose months. I played Candy Crush to level 215, which I think is the last level because it's a total fark you.

I've done a six hour exam and finished early. I've done a twelve hour day in a VFR air traffic control tower. But I live in a sty because I can't focus on cleaning for an hour.

The guy is biatching that the prescribed stimulants can cause "severe weight loss due to appetite suppression", the only problem I can see with that side effect is that the drugs are not being made available to more people, given we supposedly have an obesity epidemic.

AverageAmericanGuy:I've met a few kids who definitely had something wrong with them. Hyperactive, inability to concentrate, inappropriate behavior, struggle with authority. These are all normal behaviors of normal kids. But when you meet a kid with the type of behavioral problem that they call ADHD, these are magnified tenfold.

Sure, the doctors are probably overprescribing drugs to kids who don't need them because their parents are no longer willing to be parents and would rather just drug kids into compliance, but having spent time with some of kids who are actually having their quality of life destroyed by their uncontrollable behaviors, I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

THIS.

I was very skeptical about the prevalence of ADHD until I started working with elementary school aged children. I was raised old school and figure what these kids needed most was an ass whuppin'.

I'm sure that over medication of kids and young adults does happen but I've personally seen dozens of kids who have had their ability to concentrate AND LEARN aided by medication...

When I was in college, we used to have to hang out at the truck stops to find speed for cramming and finals. Now these kids these days just go to the doc and say they have a little problem concentrating.

Well yeah it exists. That's why there's a word for it. If there's a word for it it exists. If it didn't exist there wouldn't be a word for it. Duh. Work it out brain guy. You think people are busy making words for things that don't exist? Then how would they be able to make a word for something which could not be described? "Hey come up for a word for this thing that isn't real." You can't. I tried it. You can't make a word that doesn't have meaning. That means it's just noise. That's the definition of the word word brain guy. Look it up. Words can't not mean something. So what you're saying brain guy is that the word ADHD isn't a word. It's not that what is defined by ADHD doesn't exist, it's that the very word ADHD doesn't exist. Are you prepared for this brain guy? Are you prepared to tell American this?

Way back when, the principal of my school prescribed me Ritalin. Okay, what she really did was tell my parents that if I didn't get put on Ritalin I would be kicked out of school. Same farking thing.

It was wrong and I really didn't notice any effects either good or bad from taking that drug.

I was initially labeled as "hyperactive", but there does seem to be some attention deficit in there somewhere. What's interesting is if I'm really interested i something I can give it my full attention, but a lot of other stuff I lose interest in about 15 seconds.

I even have trouble watching TV shows sometimes. Sometimes I watch something for 2 minutes and hit pause and watch another 2 minutes before I'm bored again and have to hit pause again.

It's an affliction and it's not so simple as being distracted by a squirrel. Some things really grab my attention and I can focus in on them, but a lot of other shiat.....well, my mind just tunes out.

wildcardjack:Well, it does seem that every attention deficient kid can find endless amounts for something engaging like a videogame, which must be hyperactivity.

I was a horrible student who never did his homework and aced tests. It took until college to find homework interesting enough to do. I've played Half-Life games straight through. I don't touch WoW or other things like that because I know I'd lose months. I played Candy Crush to level 215, which I think is the last level because it's a total fark you.

I've done a six hour exam and finished early. I've done a twelve hour day in a VFR air traffic control tower. But I live in a sty because I can't focus on cleaning for an hour.

Polyhazard:wildcardjack: Well, it does seem that every attention deficient kid can find endless amounts for something engaging like a videogame, which must be hyperactivity.

I was a horrible student who never did his homework and aced tests. It took until college to find homework interesting enough to do. I've played Half-Life games straight through. I don't touch WoW or other things like that because I know I'd lose months. I played Candy Crush to level 215, which I think is the last level because it's a total fark you.

I've done a six hour exam and finished early. I've done a twelve hour day in a VFR air traffic control tower. But I live in a sty because I can't focus on cleaning for an hour.

"Hyperfocus," actually.

I keep trying to post this link, but every time I do, it pops up as a link not found. Wtf, feds?